A historic section of downtown Birmingham including Sixteenth Street Baptist Church has earned the designation of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.
That distinction — named in one of Barack Obama’s last official acts as president in January — will offer protection to the city’s civil rights district, which also includes the historic A.G. Gaston Motel, which Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders used as their campaign headquarters in 1963, and Kelly Ingram Park, where dogs and hoses were turned on civil rights protestors by police. The other church designated is Bethel Baptist Church, headquarters of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.
Arthur Price Jr., pastor of Sixteenth Street Baptist, said he believes the national monument designation will “fortify” Birmingham’s place in history — and hopefully broaden his church’s ministry.
“One of the things that we have adopted over the years even before the designation of the monument is a ministry to the thousands of people who want to see the church because of what happened here,” said Price, noting that in 1963, the church was the site of a bombing that took the lives of four young girls.
To honor their memory, a core team of retired educators come in and talk to visitors about the history and significance of the church.
God’s saving grace
“They talk about the climate and mood of Spring 1963 and talk about the bombing and the four little girls who lost their lives,” Price said. “But they also talk about the grace, mercy and love of God. They use it as a way to talk about His saving grace.”
On any given week, the church may have visitors from places from Ireland to New Zealand to Japan, he said.
The national monument designation was announced Jan. 12 leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day and instructs the National Park Service to manage the sites, which may include visitor services and help with preservation.
“As the city with the help of the National Park Service promotes this area more and more, we anticipate expanding our ministry as even more global,” Price said. “We believe we
are in a position to be able to plant a seed.”
Brent Leggs, senior field officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said Birmingham’s “vast collection” of civil rights sites should experience increased visitation as a result of the designation.
“National parks are economic drivers for their local communities,” Leggs said. “Civil rights tourism is a growing sector of the $30 billion heritage tourism market.”
‘Testament’ to heroism
As part of his announcement, Obama said the landmarks of the civil rights district “all stand as a testament to the heroism of those who worked so hard to advance the cause of freedom.”
The designation coincided with the naming of the Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston and the Reconstruction Era National Monument in South Carolina.
Leggs said the monuments “join the ranks of Selma, Montgomery and Tuskegee among our nation’s 417 units of the National Parks System. Together these special places honor Alabama’s rich civil rights and African-American heritage for all Americans to experience and learn from.”
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